Hitting Delmon Young in the back with a fastball will not make second place any sweeter.

But it has to be done. Someone needs to drill Young in the ribs. That's the way baseball is and, frankly, that's the way life is. Consider this: if a bully knocks down a kid on the playground, what is the kid supposed to do? I'll tell you what he should do -- no matter how big the bully is, hit him in the nose as hard as possible, tackle him, do whatever is necessary but definitely retaliate. If the kid doesn't fight back, he can't go to the playground or anywhere else without being hounded. On a side note, one of my favorite scenes in the Billy Bob Thornton film Bad Santa is the one where Thornton, dressed in the Santa suit, drives to the playground and just drubs the bully who has was giving the kid (listed in the credits as "the kid") a hard time. Great stuff.

Anyway, it is drag that peaceful, law abiding people have to confront bullies (like hothead Delmon Young) but that's the way things have always been. The Sox need to retaliate in order to re-establish order and equilibrium. If they don't, the Twins can push them around indefinitely.

It's not really about protecting anyone, it's about wanting to win. You have to come into the match ready to stomp the competition, wanting to destroy them and defeat them at all costs.

People who believe that this game has changed, or that there is no need to it seem to forget that in the end it's us against them. It's never them with us, so your point is moot. The fact remains that the Twins are our rival, they are our enemy of sorts, and when you allow your enemy to continue getting the upper hand by instilling and intimidating advantage over our team, you will not win and your enemy will continue doing whatever they please.

You can also say that the Twins just showed they have the better team. For the past ten years the Twins may have had the better team one time or two times out of all of those years and the White Sox saw the lead slip away almost all of them. Why? Because we continue to allow this kind of behavior.

You don't do this for retaliation, you don't do this out of anger from yesterday, you do it because they are your enemy, you do it because they will do anything to beat you and you should do everything to beat them. That's the problem with sports, nobody has a killer instinct anymore, everyone wants to be respectable. You show respect to the people that matter, you show respect to the outside world, to your family, to your friends, but you don't show respect to the people trying to beat you day in and day out. That doesn't mean you kill them, but you have to do everything possible to beat them and if sending a message is one of those things then you better be doing it.

No, it's because the Twins WERE better. They WON MORE GAMES. They were better at WINNING GAMES. It wasn't because they threw more at the opposing players, it was because more often than not they BEAT the other team AND THROWING AT PLAYERS DOES NOT HELP YOU WIN GAMES. It's counter productive. It's THAT SIMPLE. People want to make it out to be more than that and it's just not. I cannot grasp this view that so many people have that the Sox have to start doing that sort of crap and bam, THAT's the secret, that's the key that they were missing the entire time.

No, it's not. The Twins have MVP caliber players in Mauer and Morneau and had one of the best closers in the game, along with one of the best starters in the game for a while for all those years and a bunch of good complimentary players around them and they tend to play good defense. And I know it's repeated ad nauseum, but they don't beat themselves that much. That's why they win. And they've been able to do that more often than the Sox. It has nothing to do with beaning players.

No, it's because the Twins WERE better. They WON MORE GAMES. They were better at WINNING GAMES. It wasn't because they threw more at the opposing players, it was because more often than not they BEAT the other team AND THROWING AT PLAYERS DOES NOT HELP YOU WIN GAMES. It's counter productive. It's THAT SIMPLE. People want to make it out to be more than that and it's just not. I cannot grasp this view that so many people have that the Sox have to start doing that sort of crap and bam, THAT's the secret, that's the key that they were missing the entire time.

No, it's not. The Twins have MVP caliber players in Mauer and Morneau and had one of the best closers in the game, along with one of the best starters in the game for a while for all those years and a bunch of good complimentary players around them and they tend to play good defense. And I know it's repeated ad nauseum, but they don't beat themselves that much. That's why they win. And they've been able to do that more often than the Sox. It has nothing to do with beaning players.

And you forget that we have much better pitching than they do. Your argument is that they have a better hitting squad, and mine is that we have the better pitching squad. Also, back in the day we had the better hitting squads and would still lose. We have had better teams, and we have continued to lose.

Listen, I advocate winning as the way to do things the right way, but I don't advocate losing and laying down while your doing it. That's all I'm saying, you have to win and lose wanting to embarrass your enemy. That's all, plain and simple. The message the Twins, with their inferior teams, have gotten time after time against us. I have no idea what you're talking about- try justifying the sucky ass teams the Twins have put in year after year prior to this year and how they have continued to take the Division from us.

Why is it, because they are so respectable? Because they are the better team- don't be delusional. They WANT to win, and they continue doing it. That is all, you take the game in your own hands, don't put it into theirs by being cute.

But hey, I'm sure the kid who got bullied was perfectly fine and got very far in his life when he continued letting people walk all over him. That's how the world works, the cowards always win.

EDIT: and quit denying the evidence that is staring you directly in the face in regards to how they have done violent things to us before. Come on man, how many times do you have to see a catcher run over or a played being plunked to understand that they see this the way we SHOULD see it.

So you'd have two of your five starters throwing two days in a row, one of them an actual game? You'd have Buehrle get warmed up today, sit down, then pitch tomorrow? No.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant have Floyd drill someone in the 1st inning, preferably Mauer. If he gets tossed Buerhle takes his place ( assuming he is ready to go). Tommorow's game Floyd will start since he would have thrown only like 10 pitches today.

__________________Joe Flacco Super Bowl 47 Champion and MVPJoe Flacco First Rookie QB to win 2 games in his first playoff.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant have Floyd drill someone in the 1st inning, preferably Mauer. If he gets tossed Buerhle takes his place ( assuming he is ready to go). Tommorow's game Floyd will start since he would have thrown only like 10 pitches today.

No, you meant have Floyd drill, and if he gets tossed have Linebrink pitch as long as it would take Buerhle to get warmed up. Then tomorrow scoot up rotation one day, and have Floyd pitch Friday....It's all good....
Drill, you never know, you might find oil. Doing nothing has not won us a series with them in OVER A YEAR...Time to try something different...

__________________
Do the white sox know that it is Designated Hitter, not Designated Out?

And you forget that we have much better pitching than they do. Your argument is that they have a better hitting squad, and mine is that we have the better pitching squad. Also, back in the day we had the better hitting squads and would still lose. We have had better teams, and we have continued to lose.

Listen, I advocate winning as the way to do things the right way, but I don't advocate losing and laying down while your doing it. That's all I'm saying, you have to win and lose wanting to embarrass your enemy. That's all, plain and simple. The message the Twins, with their inferior teams, have gotten time after time against us. I have no idea what you're talking about- try justifying the sucky ass teams the Twins have put in year after year prior to this year and how they have continued to take the Division from us.

Why is it, because they are so respectable? Because they are the better team- don't be delusional. They WANT to win, and they continue doing it. That is all, you take the game in your own hands, don't put it into theirs by being cute.

But hey, I'm sure the kid who got bullied was perfectly fine and got very far in his life when he continued letting people walk all over him. That's how the world works, the cowards always win.

This dude.....hahahaha...ohhhh...man....where to begin?

If you have such a "better" team and you continue to lose the division to their "sucky ass" team....maybe you don't have a better team. Did that ever occur to you? Or is it always some excuse built in. I'm not saying the Twins are some great, unbelieveable team, I'm just saying they're probably better than the Sox. So, ok, by your logic, the Twins don't have a better team, but they WANT to win, so much more so that it becomes sort of like magic willpower and combined with Gardenhire's sorcery makes them only SEEM like a better team.......almost....every...time...they play the Sox. Hmmm. Maybe there's something I'm not taking into account. Maybe they're just better at winning baseball games. You think it might just be that? Maybe, just maybe? Or the magic willpower excuse? I don't know.

And when did the Sox lay down? They rallied back TWICE in that game. Danks had a rough first inning where it looked like he wouldn't last more than a couple if he was lucky. He went 7 innings and while he didn't have his best stuff at all, he saved the already shorthanded bullpen even more strain. Thornton pitched out of a jam but unfortunately blew the save when he probably shouldn't have been in there, but I don't know if there was much of a choice at that point.

Oh no wait, it wasn't Thornton. It was at the bottom of the 8th inning when Young tried to cheapshot AJ (and it was a cheapshot) as he was thrown out. Because we didn't do anything about that, we lost the game.....buuuut the very next inning, the first pitch, Ramirez hit a home run to tie it. Hmmm, that doesn't fit into the logic of the magic willpower theory. Guess we'll just ignore that.

I lurk here all the time and never post but last night really pissed me off.

Someone needs to get drilled tonight and that's the bottom line. The Twins have been using Carlos and the Sox as target practice and it has to stop. The play with Young last night was a punk move, pure and simple. Had Young lowered his shoulder and plowed through that's one thing but to intentionally slam your forearms into AJ's head and then push with your arms is bull****. Had he used his fists it would have been considered a punch. The Sox look like chicken **** right now and are letting the Twins push them around. If you don't think that gets into the Sox heads, then I am sorry but your wrong. What this team needs is a bench brawl to get them fired up and give them a **** YOU attitude. Everytime they play the Twins they look like a cowering dog getting yelled at.

And to the people who think there is no need for it or no room for it or that it's not "sportmans like" I say bull****. This is not t-ball where everyone gets a plaque and trophy at the end of the year, this is Major League Baseball and it's time for the Sox to put the big boy pants on.

The season is getting short and if we want to win this division this team needs to light a fire up under it's ass and stop letting itself get kicked around.

Let me get this straight. Delmon Young, a 24 year old and 6'3" 200lb professional athlete, makes contact with AJ Pierzynski, a 33 year old 6'3" 230 lb professional athlete, on a play where contact is allowed.